u/Cautious_Ticket_8943

You want BiL? Well, this is my 85 year old British Mark VII gas mask bag, and it doesn't sit on a shelf. I travel everywhere with it. It's an original, though the ink stating "1941" has faded completely in the last twenty years.

I'm a big Indiana Jones fan and Indy carried it in all of his movies (despite taking place in the 1930s, before these bags were built), so I decided it was worth buying this old bag about 20 years ago on eBay. It came with the original cloth webbing strap, but decided to replace it with a replica Indy leather strap upon receipt. It's been with me to around 30 countries now. Currently, it resides with me in Cambodia, though we'll be moving to China soon. In one picture, you can see it alongside my 36 year old Tilley Hat (posted a couple of days ago on this sub).

As the bag was about 65 years old when I bought it (new, unissued, about $60), I quickly found that the original stitching was dry-rotted and coming apart, so I spent about 40 hours removing all of the old stitching and hand-restitching the entire thing. You can see a picture of the before-and-after stitching. After that, the bag has held up very well. With all of my traveling around the world, particularly to National Geographic-style places, I guess it does make me feel like I'm cosplaying Indiana Jones a bit.

This is an original printing of The Golden Egg, printed in 1947. It is 79 years old. It was read by my grandparents to my mother and her siblings, and my mother read it to me. Now I've pulled it, along with many of my childhood books, out of my storage unit in America and have brought it to Cambodia to be with us. I read it to my four year old son. It's missing its cover and in tatters, but it's 100% readable. My son asks for this book many nights by name. I suppose that if he ever wants to read it to his children, we may have to buy a copy from eBay at that point!

This is my Tilley Hat. I bought it during college in 1995 from a store that's long gone now. I think the hat was around $55 at that time. The hat looked *very* different then. Even at that age, I was attracted to the thought of BIL. It has been with me for 31 years now, through about 30 countries. Currently, it lives in Cambodia with me. I still wear it when I travel to this day, whether it be to a fishing lake south of Phnom Penh or visiting a temple in Kathmandu.

The fabric itself is starting to break down now, so I don't imagine I'll get more than five or ten more years out of it. I guess the UV and too many washing in dishwashers and whatnot have taken its toll. It supposedly has a lifetime warranty (The paperwork that came with the hat said, "Yes, put it in your will"). Word is that the warranty isn't quite that good these days, but I'm happy to get 31 years out of it, in any case.